German unification was a historical process that occurred during the second half of the 19th century and concluded with the creation of the German Empire in January 1871. Before unification, there were 39 different states in that territory, the Austrian and Prussian empires standing out for their importance . of uniting all these territories under the same state gained strength at the beginning of the century several causes contributed to this, from the ideological with the appearance of German nationalist romanticism to the economic and strategic ones such as the dispute between austria and prussia for gaining supremacy in europe central the unification was carried out by means of arms there were three wars that expanded the prussian territory and led to the creation of the empire austria and france-- they were the ones who were most affected since they were forced to give up some territories and also saw their political power the result of the unification was the appearance of a new g great power the empire tried to get colonies in africa colliding with the british and french together with other circumstances this led to the creation of several international alliances that were maintained until the outbreak of the first world war causes at the end of the napoleonic war the idea of unify all the territories that had belonged to the holy germanic empire under the same state the congress of vienna held in 1815 had not satisfied the nationalist demands that sought that objective before its unification germany was divided into 39 states the most prominent both politically and economically and militarily they were the austrian empire and the kingdom of prussia the two protagonists of the unification process were the prussian king william the first and his chancellor otto von both began to maneuver to achieve the goal of a united germany iu that would become the great power of the center of the continent otto von bismarck one of the most important figures in european history during the second half of the 18th century was otto von bismarck nicknamed the iron chancellor not only for his role in german unification but for being the architect of armed peace a system of alliances that kept a tense balance for several decades bismarck was born in 1815 and ruled for almost thirty years of conservative tendency the politician was prime minister to the king of prussia and then minister to the emperor of germany during the process of unification led the three wars that led to the formation of the german empire the chancellor was also the ideologue of the military reform that william first intended to carry out the establishment of a true dictatorship dispensing with parliament between 1860 and 2008 66 with the taxes set by king bismarck he managed to turn his country into a power capable of confronting with Austrian and French successes romanticism and nationalism at the ideological level co German unification was preceded by the appearance of German romanticism, more specifically the one that connected with nationalism, this conjunction affirmed that the legitimacy of the state comes from the homogeneity of its inhabitants, this type of nationalism based the existence of a state on aspects such as language culture religion and customs of its inhabitants this ideological current had an important reflection on culture from music to philosophy through literature in Prussia this nationalist feeling had been strengthened during the war against Napoleon's troops thus appeared the ball strong concept that meant the condition of being a nation in the sense of being a people between 1815 948 this romantic nationalism had a liberal character with strong intellectual roots philosophers like hegel and fitch stood out poets like jane or narrators like the brothers grimm however the failed revolution of 1848 made the project liberal will fail after 1848 nationalist groups began political campaigns to encourage the unification of germany into a single state bismarck and william first shared that desire but from an authoritarian and non-liberal point of view germanic confederation the victorious powers in the war against napoleon they met at the congress of vienna in 1815 to reorganize the continent and its borders the resulting agreement contemplated the creation of the germanic confederation that grouped 39 german states that had formed part of the holy germanic empire this confederation was under the presidency of the house of austria and did not satisfy German nationalism the diet a kind of parliament was made up of delegates appointed by the governments of each state that continued to retain their sovereignty when the German revolution broke out in 1848 with great popular repercussion it was clear that unification would occur sooner or later the doubt was in who li would russia or austria decide this rivalry could be seen in the very functioning of the confederation agreements and unity of action were only possible when prussia and austria were in agreement which finally caused the seven weeks war the prussian victory meant the end of the germanic confederation and its replacement in 1867 by the north german confederation customs union or zollverein the only area in which the majority of the german states agreed was in the economic one at the proposal of prussia the customs union also known as zollverein was created in 1834 from a free trade zone in north german from 1852 the zollverein was extended to the rest of the german states with the exception of austria this market allowed the region to develop industrially as well as the increase in the influence of the bourgeoisie and growth of the working class failure of the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 within the framework of the so-called bourgeois revolutions s there were two outbursts in germany in 1830 and 1840, however their failure ended the attempt to bring a more democratic system to the region, consolidating absolutism, part of that failure was due to the alliance established by the german bourgeoisie with the aristocracy and who feared the triumph of the labor and democratic movements, even so, the influence of the revolutionaries was noticeable in the matter of possible unification, the liberals defended the creation of a federal state with an emperor at the head, while the democrats bet on a centralized state as well there were other sensitivities those who preferred a little germany without austria and those who advocated a great germany with austria as an integral part the rivalry between prussia and austria the differences between prussia and the austrian empire were due to the attempt of both powers to control the process of unification and especially the power once the Prussians under the reign of gui lermo first and with bismarck as prime minister they intended the creation of a united germany under a prussian hegemony it was the iron chancellor who affirmed that the unification was justified by a reason of state this reason allowed according to bismarck to use any measure to achieve it regardless of the cost in its confrontation with austria the prussian tactic was to isolate its rival through the support of france at the same time it isolated russia diplomatically so that it could not help the austrians on the other hand russia dedicated its efforts to militarily overcome austria preparing for when the inevitable came Finally, the war was only about waiting for the pretext to begin the characteristic hostilities. German unification, as corresponded to the country's policy, had a conservative and authoritarian character apart from the aristocracy and the landed nobility, it received the support of the industrial upper bourgeoisie. new state was governed under a system monarchist and federal called the second king and his first emperor was william first with this the Prussian supremacy was established within the non-democratic German empire the German unification was decided by the Prussian elites although they will have the support of a good part of the population the people were not consulted and in some areas he was forcibly forced to change his religion and language followed by war the creation of the German empire was by no means a peaceful process to unify the Germanic states three wars took place peace did not come until unification Stages became effective, as stated above , three wars were necessary for German unification to take place, each of them marks a different stage in the process, these warlike confrontations served for Bruce to extend his territory, especially to Austria and France. - the protagonist of these wars was otto von bismarck who designed He created the political and military strategy for his country to control the unified territory War of the Duchies The first conflict pitted Austria and Prussia against Denmark The War of the Duchies The reason for the conflict in 1864 was the struggle for control of two dukedoms and holstein the antecedents of this war date back to 1863 when the germanic confederation lodged a protest against the king of denmark's attempt to annex the dukedom of sils week then under german control according to an agreement signed in 1812 seals week had been attached to holstein another duchy that belonged to the germanic confederation bismarck convinced the austrian monarch to defend said agreement and on january 16, 1864 they issued an ultimatum to denmark to desist from its purpose the war ended with the victory of prussia and austria the dukedom of charles witt came under prussian administration while holstein came under austria bismarck however ap he took advantage of the commercial appeal of the zollverein to impose his influence also on honstein his justification was the right of self-determination of peoples by which the wish of the before joining prussia austro-christian war had to be respected chancellor bismarck continued with his strategy to establish Prussian supremacy over the Austrians thus made Napoleon the Third declare his neutrality in the face of a possible confrontation and allied himself with Victor Manuel the Second. Once this was achieved, he declared war on Austria . industrial and military development in a few weeks the prussian troops defeated their enemies the final battle took place in 1866 thinking wow after the victory prussia and austria signed the peace of prague that allowed the prussian territorial enlargement on the other hand austria definitively renounced be part of a future germany ified and accepted the dissolution of the Germanic confederation franco-prussian war the last stage of unification and the last war against prussia with one of its traditional enemies france the reason for the conflict was the request of the spanish nobility for prince leopold to be judged i am the cousin of the king of prussia will accept the currently vacant crown of spain france fearful of remaining between two countries dominated by the prussian nobility opposed this possibility shortly after napoleon the third declared war on prussia stating that william the first had despised the ambassador French by refusing to receive him in his palace the Prussians anticipating events had already mobilized five hundred thousand men and defeated the French overwhelmingly in several battles Napoleon the third himself had been taken prisoner during the war the treaty between the two rivals was signed in Sedan on September 2, 1870 the defeat caused a great insurr ection in paris where the third french republic was declared the new republic government tried to continue the fight against the prussians but they advanced unstoppably until they occupied paris france had no choice but to sign a new treaty this time in frankfurt agrees endorsing it in may 1871 established the solution to prussia of alsace and lorraine consequences with the annexation of alsace and lorraine russia hereinafter referred to as germany unification culminated the next step was the founding of the german empire on january 18, 1871 the prussian monarch william first was named emperor in the hall of mirrors in versailles something considered a humiliation for france bismarck for his part held the position of chancellor the newly created empire took the form of a confederation endowed with a constitution it had two chambers of government the bundesrat made up of representatives of all states and the king is he by universal suffrage birth of a great n power Germany lived through a time of economic and demographic growth that made it one of the main European powers. This made it begin to participate in the race to colonize African and Asian territories in competition with the United Kingdom. The tensions caused by this fact were one of the causes of the first world war cultural imposition within the empire the government promoted a cultural campaign to homogenize the states that were part of the new nation among the effects of this cultural unification they highlighted the elimination of some non-German languages from education and public life as well as the obligation for the non-German population to abandon their own customs or otherwise to leave the territory formation of the triple alliance bismarck began diplomatic work to strengthen the position of his country against the rest of the powers for it promoted the creation of international alliances that contr arrest the danger of new wars on the continent in this way negotiated with austria and italy the formation of a coalition called the triple alliance initially the agreement between these countries was to provide military support in the event of a conflict with france later when the french signed his own alliances this was extended to great britain and russia apart from this the chancellor boosted military spending to further strengthen his army this period known as the armed peace led years later to the first world war